Creature features seem like they should be simple. Give us a dangerous beast, a group of unfortunate victims, and enough tension, blood, or absurdity to justify spending ninety minutes watching people become live meals. Of course, simplicity is harder than it looks. Last time, we compared and contrasted the chimp crazy Primate with the evil version of Free Willy, AKA Killer Whale.
This latest Creature Feature Showdown explores recent releases Chum and Hungry, with the former hosting a killer shark while the latter...a killer hippopotamus. One animal is a staple of the subgenre and the other is quite novel, but the two creatures should have no problem generating thrills. Instead, sadly, both Chum and Hungry serve as reminders that even the most reliable monster movie formula can easily go wrong.
Directed by Jonathan Zuck, Chum begins with a genuinely promising setup. A wedding party celebrating in Malta finds itself stranded at sea when a shark attack leaves their boat disabled, only for the survivors to fall into the hands of a mysterious fisherman (Jim Klock) with plans of his own. A classic shark attack thriller mixed with a human predator story is a solid idea on paper, especially when the central group is already loaded with dysfunction before the bloodshed even starts.
The newlyweds at the center of the story, Tina (Alice Eve) and Tom (Eric Michael Cole), are already heading toward an annulment. The best man (Johnny Gaffney) is obnoxious. Tina’s sister (Elle Haymond) barely tolerates her. Nobody seems happy to be there. The movie spends its first act establishing this chaos, and for a brief moment it feels like there might be a genuine pulse lurking beneath the surface of this very-much B-movie. Then the survival aspect starts and everything interesting gets thrown overboard.
The underwater photography occasionally works, particularly whenever the soundtrack distorts beneath the waves, but nearly everything else falls apart. Performances range from flat to outright amateur, the constant ADR dialogue is both bad and distracting, and Roy, the fisherman who eventually reveals himself as the film's true villain, talks like he wandered in from a completely different movie. The shark itself doesn't fare much better. Despite some surprisingly gruesome kills, the seemingly AI-generated creature never feels convincing for even a second.
Meanwhile, James Nunn’s Hungry arrives with one immediate advantage: a killer hippopotamus is simply a way more interesting premise for this sort of thing. Hippos are among the most dangerous animals on Earth, yet they've been largely ignored by creature features. Setting one loose in the Louisiana bayou while a gator-seeking tourist group unknowingly wanders into its territory is exactly the kind of wonderfully ridiculous setup these movies should embrace.
For extra credit, Hungry spends far more time establishing its characters and environment than most of its peers. The swamp locations look fantastic, the cast (led by Madison Davenport) is surprisingly solid across the board, and performers like Joaquim de Almeida bring far more commitment than a movie quasi-conceived by the Hungry Hungry Hippos children’s game probably deserves. There's genuine effort here, and for much of the first half, that effort is enough to keep things engaging.
Unfortunately, the movie never capitalizes on its strongest idea. Rather than leaning into the terror and chaos a killer hippo should generate, Hungry spends most of its runtime hiding the central creature. Restraint can be effective, of course, but here it becomes a liability. The attacks are sparse and hard to see, the tension rarely builds, and the lack of a meaningful score leaves long stretches feeling oddly empty. Much like Chum, once the survivors are stranded and the real survival story begins, the film actually becomes less engaging instead of more.
By the time the movie finally reaches its climax, it feels as though it's been stalling for nearly an hour. The hippo never actually becomes frightening, the attacks never become exciting enough to compensate, and what should have been a gloriously silly B-movie instead sinks into monotony. There's a good, maybe even great creature feature buried somewhere inside Hungry. Sadly, it's bogged down somewhere deep within the swamp.
Neither of these films exactly covers itself in glory, but if nothing else, they prove that putting a dangerous animal on screen is the easy part. Making audiences care once it arrives is a whole different beast.
'Chum' is now playing in select theaters and available digitally.
'Hungry' is now playing in theaters.
